Different business model, different regime. Not a single revenue management strategy of significance from Airtran was implemented at that time. So scope was easy to keep clean. BJ maybe from the old regime but he is definitely willing to dirty up scope. More importantly, AW is all in on it too. If SWA buys any airline from here forward, it will complicate things. Especially section 1. As you know already, look what they did in DEN. Adding way more connections with less RON's aka creating banks. AW just did a video on connections. Pilots have the final say but it makes things way more complicated. It maybe early innings, but the business model has changed. 137/175 seat airplanes are not going to be forever. The more they intentionally connect and add partnerships, the higher the probability will be they want something outside those gauges, especially if yields/PRASM improves. I think SWAPA is trying to figure out what the red line is. Good news is with spot fuel being $4.30 a gallon, they are more focused on managing costs and these initiatives are moving farther down the line of priorities at the moment.

 

We gave them codeshares in ‘16. They didn’t use them until last year. I really don’t care what BoJo and Watterson want…scope relief is a non-starter…just like RP changes.

 

I know a CA that wants to get rid of the PDEW limits and wants to contract out RJ flying, among other harebrained contract changes that would save the company money, because he want big profit sharing checks again.

SWAPA needs to do some serious education on this. No relief on scope.

 

Some weird logic there. Contracting out RJ’s might yield more PS….for some. The list will go stagnant as the growth happens on the RJ side. No reason to fly TUS-PHX, MDW-MKE, DEN-COS or RSW-MCO in a 737 when you can run CRJ’s all day long for a fraction of the cost (Regionals get paid a lot more now anyway, especially when they’re offering 300% because they can’t stay staffed so who knows what the revenue/profit would even look like anyway).

Just say NO. It’s Pandora’s Box.

 

Seems like this comes up every few years, especially during polling cycles and negotiations. Section 1 is ours. It’s our trump card. There should absolutely be no relief on it. I think the general population feels the exact same way. If we do ever decide to loosen language due to a significant change in the business model, it needs to be coupled with a pathway to seniority list growth and immediate tangible improvements for the entire seniority list. Nobody should be doing the flying that a Southwest pilot can do.
Whatever was being thrown around the horn last year clearly didn’t impress SWAPA too much, and for that I am glad. I fully expected to get inundated with promises of shiny airplanes or exotic locales, but so far it has been very quiet. Meanwhile, I am doing just fine flying up and down the coast of California.

 

No relief on scope, period!

 

CPA’s are expensive and only work if you truly create many banks of flights. SWA has more nonstops domestically(75%) than any other carrier. A very small percentage of connections. SWA is a p2p and will be for the foreseeable future. RJ’s, especially below 100 seats, is not financially viable. Hence why you haven’t seen a CPA in Hawaii. There is a sweet spot financially for those birds but not under the current business model that SWA has.

 

CPA’s are expensive and only work if you truly create many banks of flights. SWA has more nonstops domestically(75%) than any other carrier. A very small percentage of connections. SWA is a p2p and will be for the foreseeable future. RJ’s, especially below 100 seats, is not financially viable. Hence why you haven’t seen a CPA in Hawaii. There is a sweet spot financially for those birds but not under the current business model that SWA has.

 

Sorry for the double post.

 

Lots of SWA pilots want 787’s, XLR, Europe, etc but are unwilling to give relief on Section 1. It may very well be that you can’t have both. Hard to fill a wide body without more connections from smaller outstations and that cannot be done in a 737. Not saying it’s the right or wrong thing to do, but all the fancy/shiny destinations and wide bodies that legacies have come at a price. Maybe we see an explosion of growth like United/Delta or maybe the company abuses section 1 and tries to outsource more and more flying at our expense.